One of the hottest mobile phones of the year on Android is the Galaxy S3 from Samsung. The phone is offered by five carriers in the US, but at the moment it is hard to come by thanks to unprecedented demand. Two carriers in the US have short supplies of the Samsung Galaxy S3 while T-Mobile is asking far more for the handset than the other carriers (or any other smartphone they released too date). The shortages of the handset are testament to Samsung delivering a handset with the Android OS that may rival that of the iPhone 5 when it is finally released.
Samsung Galaxy S3 shortage in the US, prices raised by some carriers & retailers
Sprint were supposed to start selling their version of the S3 last Thursday, however delays have occurred due to the fact that the demand for the handsets is high. If you pre-ordered the 16GB Samsung Galaxy S3 the good news is that you should get it as planned. The bad news is that those who want the 32GB version of the handset will have to wait another week.
Delays have also been seen at AT&T who has said that the cause of delays is down to the supply constraints from the manufacturer. They had said that their delivery date was the 21st of June and then they changed it to no later than the 25th. Anyone who pre-ordered a handset from them should get in within 10 business days and they went on to say that they would send out emails and texts to notify those who had pre-ordered that their phone was on its way.
Verizon have not mentioned delays, but they are bound to occur, and Verizon happen to be the only carrier not to have given a release date for the phone. They have said that the shipping date is 9th July.
T-Mobile on the other hand seems to be taking advantage of the high demand of the device and exploiting the device by sticking a higher than usual price tag on it despite it coming with LTE support. While other carriers have the price tag of $199 for the 16GB and the 32GB at $249, T-Mobile are asking $279 for the 16GB and $329 for the 32GB, following a mail in rebate of $50. This is the first time ever that T-Mobile has set a price tag of $329 for a handset.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 has had more than 9 million pre-orders, with Samsung being able to produce 5 million units each month. They are working hard to meet the unprecedented demand for the phone and it appears that the handset may have been delayed in other regions to help meet the demand. Could the Galaxy S3 do what no other phone has managed to do and beat sales of the iPhone?
